This article was downloaded by: [Per Anders Rudling] On: 04 September 2012, At: 10:32 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK The Journal of Slavic Military Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/fslv20 ‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited Per Anders Rudling a a Lund University Version of record first published: 04 Sep 2012 To cite this article: Per Anders Rudling (2012): ‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier- Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 25:3, 329-368 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13518046.2012.705633 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material. Journal of Slavic Military Studies, 25:329–368, 2012 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1351-8046 print/1556-3006 online DOI: 10.1080/13518046.2012.705633 ‘They Defended Ukraine’: The 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS (Galizische Nr. 1) Revisited PER ANDERS RUDLING Lund University In recent years there has been an increased interest in the legacy of the Fourteenth Grenadier Division of the Waffen-SS, known as the Waffen-SS Galizien, a Ukrainian volunteer formation formed in 1943. In Ukrainian ultra-nationalist mythology the unit is depicted as freedom fighters who fought for an independent Ukraine, its col- laboration with Nazi Germany dismissed as “Soviet propaganda.” There is a widening gulf between the myth and the picture that emerges from the archival materials. This article revisits the history of the unit, with a particular focus on aspects of its history which the myth makers omit or deny: its ideological foundations, its alle- giance to Adolf Hitler, and the involvement of units associated with the division in atrocities against civilians in 1944. The author wishes to thank Tarik Cyril Amar, Dominique Arel, Ray Brandon, Franziska Bruder, Roman Dubasevych, John-Paul Himka, Krzysztof Janiga, Ivan Katchanovski, David Marples, Jared McBride, Oleksandr Melnyk, Bohdan Oryshkevych, and Grzegorz Rossolinski-´ Downloaded by [Per Anders Rudling] at 10:32 04 September 2012 Liebe as well as the anonymous reviewers for generously sharing their materials, ideas, and time. The interpretations and possible errors in the texts are my own. Per Anders Rudling is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Department of History, Lund University, Sweden. His research interest includes identity, memory, and nationalist myth making in the Polish-Belarusian-Ukrainian borderlands. His recent articles include ‘The OUN, the UPA, and the Holocaust: A Study in the Manufacturing of Historical Myths,’ Carl Back Papers (2011); ‘Multiculturalism, Memory, and Ritualization: Ukrainian Nationalist Monuments in Edmonton, Alberta,’ Nationalities Papers (2011); ‘The Khatyn Massacre in Belorussia: A Historical Controversy Revisited,’ Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2012); ‘Warfare or War Criminality?’ Ab Imperio (2012). He is currently working on a monograph on Ukrainian long- distance nationalism during the Cold War. Address correspondence to Per Anders Rudling, Department of History, Lund University, Box 2074, SE-220 02, Sweden. E-mail: [email protected] 329 330 P. A. Rudling INTRODUCTION: MEMORY AND POLITICS In recent years there has been a modest renaissance in interest in the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Ukrainian), or 14. Waffen Grenadier Division der SS (ukrainische Nr. 1). The third president of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko (2005–2010) embarked on an ambitious campaign of nation- alist myth making. He designated the far-right Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), its leader Stepan Bandera, its armed wing, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), and its commander Roman Shukhevych official ‘heroes of Ukraine.’ While Yushchenko did not explicitly mention the Ukrainian Waffen-SS veterans, he also designated as heroes of Ukraine ‘other military formations, parties, and organizations and movements, dedicated to the establishment of Ukrainian state independence,’ which some have interpreted as an indirect recognition.1 Some circles within the Ukrainian diaspora and the far right have been irritated that Yushchenko did not go far enough. A veteran diaspora his- torian recently took Yushchenko to task for his failure to rehabilitate and include Ukrainian units in the service of Nazi Germany in his myth mak- ing efforts.2 The historian, who is also an activist in the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, believes that the Waffen-SS veterans deserve ‘no less respect’ than the soldiers of the Red Army.3 On Remembrance Day 2010, Paul Grod, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, in the name of 1.2 million Ukrainian-Canadians, paid tribute to the veterans of the Waffen-SS Galizien, and remembered its fallen ‘who perished fighting for the freedom of their ancestral Ukrainian homeland.’4 When the president of the Canadian soci- ety of veterans of the Waffen-SS Galizien passed away earlier that year, the UCC claimed ‘he will be remembered as a hero of Ukraine who fought for her independence.’5 In 2011, the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies 1 Viktor Yushchenko, ‘Ukaz prezydenta Ukrainy no. 75/2010 Pro vshanuvannia uchsnyliv borot’by za nezalezhnist’ Ukrainy u XX stolitti’ Ofitsiine predstavnytstvo Prezydenta Ukrainy, 28 January 2010, http:// www.president.gov.ua/documents/10379.html (accessed 26 December 2011). 2 ‘What Yushchenko can be reproached with is not having brought into the project the Ukrainian veterans of the Waffen SS Division Halychyna and other units of the armed forces of the Axis powers.’ Downloaded by [Per Anders Rudling] at 10:32 04 September 2012 Roman Serbyn, Erroneous Methods in J.-P. Himka’s Challenge to ‘Ukrainian Myths,’ 7 August 2011, Current Politics in Ukraine Blog: Opinion and analysis on current events in Ukraine, Stasiuk Program, CIUS, University of Alberta, ed. David R. Marples. http://ukraineanalysis.wordpress.com/ (accessed 1 October 2011). 3 Roman Serbyn, ‘Fotohrafii dyvizii “Halychyna”—pam’iatka ukrains’koho patriotyzmu,’ in Bohdan Matsiv (ed.), Ukrains’ka dyviziia ‘Halychyna’: Istoriia u svitlynakh vid zasnuvannia u 1943 r. do zvil’nennia z polonu 1949 r., L’viv: ZUKTs 2009), p. 234. http://www.voiakudg.com/ (accessed 8 July 2011). 4 ‘Ukrainian Community Honors Veterans on Remembrance Day,’ UCC Press Release, 11 November 2010. Web. 13, 2 April 2011. On the cult of the Waffen-SS Galizien in Canada, see Per Anders Rudling, ‘Multiculturalism, Memory, and Ritualization: Ukrainian Nationalist Monuments in Edmonton, Alberta,’ Nationalities Paper39(5) (September 2011), pp. 733–768. 5 Paul Grod, ‘UCC Expresses Condolences for Loss of Lew Babij,’ Press release, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, 12 January 2010. ‘They Defended Ukraine’ 331 at the University of Alberta, funded primarily by donations from diaspora donors, instituted three new endowments in the names of leading Waffen-SS veterans.6 While Yushchenko’s successor Viktor Yanukovych has revoked the hero status of Bandera and Shukhevych and largely put an end to the state cult of the ultra-nationalists, in Western Ukraine, apologetics for the Waffen-SS Galizien is entering the mainstream. On April 28, 2011, the 68th anniversary of the establishment of Waffen-SS Galizien, neo-fascist ‘autonomous nationalists,’ together with the far-right Svoboda Party, which dominates the L’viv city government organized a march through the city. Led by Svoboda ideologue Iurii Mykhal’chyshyn of the L’viv city council, the nearly 700 participants (2,000 according to the organizers), carrying ban- ners with neo-Nazi symbols marched down the streets of L’viv, shouting slogans like ‘Halychyna—division of heroes!,’ and ’One race, one nation, one Fatherland!’7 Svoboda, which dominates the L’viv city council, deco- rated the city with billboards with the symbol of the unit, accompanied by the texts ‘the treasure of the nation’ and ‘they defended Ukraine.’ (Figures 1 and 2). In October 2011, L’viv saw the appearance of a taxi company, named after Waffen-SS Galizien. The uniformed cab driver greets his customers with the OUN salute ‘Slava Ukrainy! Heroiam Slava! SS Galizien greets you! Please have a seat,’ and plays nationalist music in the cab during the ride. The entrepreneur explains that ‘To most people in L’viv, SS Galizien are 6 The endowments were instituted in the honor of former Waffen-SS Untersturmführer Roman Kolisnyk (b. 1923), the editor of the journal of the Ukrainian Waffen-SS veterans Visti Kombantanta; Levko Babij (1927–2010), the late Canadian president